


Intermezzo

by zenelly



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Pre- Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 15:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7444681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenelly/pseuds/zenelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riku wakes up alone.</p>
<p>(There was a time, he thinks, that this wouldn’t have been startling. Waking up alone was normal. Is normal. It’s nothing to be alarmed by, except every way it is.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intermezzo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sylvermyth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylvermyth/gifts), [apiegohome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/apiegohome/gifts), [nicayal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicayal/gifts).



> Okay, so this is a gift to three people who managed to get me thinking about KH in a sort of big way again. Not like, I always think about KH because you never lose something you love like that, but for a long time, I just haven't felt the itch to write for it. Not like I used to. And I could never find anything that I really wanted to read for it either.
> 
> Until I got started talking to silvermyth on tumblr. And she directed me to the wonderful ice skating AU that she and apiegohome and nicayal were writing and I absolutely fell in love and well, here we are, and I just wrote like, 1.3k of Riku kind of having really small abandonment issues mixed in with total fluff, SO TADA, you guys are fantastic people, thank you, and I'm sorry I'm terribly shy and will probably not actually initiate contact because SHY. Have a gift anyway. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy <3

Riku wakes up alone.

He sits up abruptly, already trying to control his breathing. Darkness presses in against his eyes, but it is normal, not malevolent, and Riku shoves his awareness of it aside. No heartbeats, no breathing, no sound of anyone else here. The only sound is rain, pattering against the windowpane. Riku wakes up alone.

(There was a time, he thinks, that this wouldn’t have been startling. Waking up alone was normal. Is normal. It’s nothing to be alarmed by, except every way it is.)

Uncaring of the cold floor of Yen Sid’s tower beneath him, Riku gets out of bed, stumbling only slightly as his blood begins flowing and his muscles wake up enough to properly react to the signals he sends them. He turns in a circle, walks out the door, eyes casting about in the careless half-light of nighttime. No signs anywhere. No signs of struggle, but also no signs of anyone else. No light comes from under anyone else’s door, so Riku moves into the stairwell, padding down with quiet steps. No sign of anyone at all.

So where is Sora?

He can’t be gone. Riku would- Riku would have woken up. Riku would  _ know _ , if Sora was gone. He’s nowhere to be found within the tower, though. Where could he be? Riku, panic swarming at his mind, pushes open the door to the outside.

And there he is.

Sora, face tilted up to the sky, stands in the courtyard with his eyes closed, looking for all the world like he is engaged in deep communion with the earth and air.

Riku’s heart staggers in his chest.

He clears his throat. It gets him nothing, Sora either not hearing or not caring, and Riku shakes his head, trying again, calling out, “Sora.”

That, at least, is heard.

Sora’s head tilts, sending a small cascade of water off that direction, and he turns to face Riku with a wide smile. Blue, blue eyes crinkle with the force of the smile, and Riku is so grateful for the reminder that Sora is still himself that he almost sits down on the wet steps of Yen Sid’s castle. Almost.

“Riku! I thought you were still asleep!” Sora says as he jogs halfway up the stairs, stopping with his feet on different steps.

Rolling his eyes to belie the tension and relief still draining out of him, Riku does not venture past the awning above the door, and crosses his arms. “I was asleep,” he allows. “I woke up.”

“Well duh. Was it the storm?”

“Hm?”

“That woke you up. Was it the storm?”

Riku feels his lips press together, a thin, tight line, and he smoothes out the expression as soon as he can. It doesn’t escape Sora’s notice, and Sora cocks his head to the side, soaking wet and glimmering in the glow of light emanating from the tower. Finally, Riku says quietly, “It wasn’t the storm.”

For all that he’s been remarkably obtuse a number of times, Sora seems to understand what Riku means that time. He nods, hopping up the last few steps separating them, and grabs Riku’s hands in his own. “Sorry, Riku. I heard the thunder and wanted to go outside to play in the rain.”

“Why?”

Sora shrugs. “We used to all the time, remember? If the storm wasn’t going to be too bad, that is. Rain doesn’t scare me, especially not out here. This is just… a good rain. Steady, warm. Smells good. All the best parts of rain, you know.”

Riku feels water drip from his hands. The rain that falls on Sora is following its natural descent with gravity, finding the lowest point of his arms, which happen to be where he’s holding Riku’s hands. He startles, removing his hands from Sora’s grasp, then guiltily looks at Sora, who watches with an amused cant to his mouth.

“Sorry, I just-” Riku cuts himself off. He just what? He just didn’t want to be wet? He just doesn’t want Sora to get the wrong idea about why he let go? He breathes in, hating his stupid, uncooperative brain, and glares at the ground.

“Riku,” Sora says kindly, “just come here already.”

Riku closes his eyes. Closes out everything but Sora, whose hands are still extended out to Riku, who reaches out and takes Riku’s wrist within his warm, calloused grasp.

And Riku goes. 

He steps into the rain, feeling it hit his skin in warm, staccato bursts of sensation. Steps into Sora’s space, even as Sora backs up, one sure step at a time until they are both on level ground. Riku reaches out, fits his hand around the curve of Sora’s waist, feels Sora’s hand cup his neck.

Riku kisses Sora, kisses the damp curve of his neck, the soft skin below his ear, and relishes in the sound of Sora laughing as he does. The knee-jerk reaction of Sora’s shoulder coming up to protect the ticklish area. The way Sora anticipates the reaction and undoes it as soon as he can, opening his vulnerable neck to the exploration of Riku’s mouth, sweet and terrible in his kindness. 

Of course,  this is when Sora ruins the moment. He loops his leg around Riku’s knees and yanks them out from under him.

“What the-” Riku sputters.

“ _ For victory! _ ” Sora crows.

Riku hits the muddy ground with a tightly exhaled curse, and Sora hits Riku in the solar plexus just as he does, laughing the whole while, and for a few, breathless seconds, Riku is dazed with a single thought.

_ This is who I fell in love with _ , he thinks. 

A warm weight straddles his hips. Riku abruptly tunes back into his surroundings and Sora’s bangs are falling all around his face, their breath mingling as Sora rests his forehead against Riku’s.

“I can’t lose you again,” he says.

“You didn’t lose me the first time. You saved me. You and everyone else.”

“I couldn’t protect you.”

“You don’t have to be the only one who fights, Riku. I can protect myself. I’m going to fight too. I’m going to protect myself. You just have to be there in case I can’t. Just like I’m going to be there for you when you can’t protect yourself either.” Sora presses a quick, close-lipped kiss against Riku’s lips, pulls back far enough that Riku can see his blue, so blue eyes. “Okay?”

Riku breathes in. Thumbs the curve of Sora’s hips, before he slides his hands up, around, and pulls Sora into a hug. 

Rain water, clean and warm and welcoming, falls on his face as he whispers, “Okay.” 

Sora, bright and wonderful, smiles down at him.

“Not that this heart to heart isn’t wonderful, because it is, but can we at least get out of the mud now?” Riku asks after a moment, and Sora huffs, but laughs as Riku shoves him to the side, going easily and rolling into another patch of mud without a care in the world. Riku makes a face at him as he stands, tries to pat off some of the gunk all over him and his clothes before resigning himself to a shower. 

“Aw come on,” Sora says, “it’s not like this stuff is  _ too _ much different than that stuff you put on your face to clean it. It’s all mud.”

“It’s not  _ mud _ , it’s a  _ cleanser _ .”

“Mud is mud, Riku! Mine’s just free!”

“Inside, shower,  _ now _ ,” Riku says, though he doesn’t move except to offer Sora a hand up.

Sora grins up at him, takes his hand, and doesn’t let go as Riku pulls him upright, into the tower. “ _ Jeez _ , fine, fine, I’ll go. As long as you go too, I’ll go anywhere. Anywhere at all, as long as we’re together.”

_ That’s my line _ , Riku thinks mildly, but he only smiles, allows Sora this much, and draws him close enough to kiss one more time before they close the door on the rain behind them.


End file.
